Julien CARVELLI

After my medical studies in Saint-Etienne, I came to Marseille to do my residency in internal medicine. Although I have now turned towards intensive care, I have kept my taste for the multidisciplinary approach of internists, which led me to deepen my knowledge of immunology in Eric Vivier’s laboratory.

I am now particularly interested in the innate immune response and hyper-inflammation found in certain serious pathologies such as sepsis or macrophage activation syndrome, a rare disease where the macrophages and T lymphocytes that normally protect us expand uncontrollably and destroy healthy blood cells.

Covid-19 patients in respiratory distress that we receive at the intensive care unit are also victims of an “immune storm”. There is still no effective treatment for these patients, which is why I decided to get involved in Explore Covid-19, a project in which Marseille Immunopôle, the AP-HM and the Lavéran Hospital, and the immunotherapy specialist Innate Pharma have joined their forces at the frontline against covid-19 to explore the immune component of the disease and identify new therapeutic avenues. Specifically, we wish to answer 2 questions: what are the immune mechanisms involved in the severe forms of the disease? Can this mechanism be effectively modulated to calm the immune system’s runaway?

Helping patients on a daily basis while trying to identify the biological origins of their disease and new ways to fight it, that’s exactly why I do this job!